Christophe Benoist

Section on Immunology and Immunogenetics
Joslin Diabetes Center
Dept of Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
One Joslin Place
Boston, MA 02215
Tel: 617-264-2742
Fax: 617-264-2744
e-mail:cb@joslin.harvard.edu
18 Postdoctoral Fellows, 5 Graduate Students

Our lab works in the fields of T cell differentiation and autoimmunity, with a special emphasis on exploiting the most advanced transgenic and gene-targeting technology to engineer new mouse models. Studies on T cell differentiation focus on 1) selection of the T cell repertoire, in particular the mechanisms of positive and negative selection and lineage commitment; and 2) cellular and molecular influences on naive and memory T cell survival in the periphery. Studies on autoimmunity explore the immunological mechanisms of diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and APECED. Major questions tackled are what initiates these diseases, how is their progression regulated, and what are the final effector mechanisms. In addition, modern genetic and genomic approaches are used to identify disease-modifying genes in both human patients and mouse models, and the application of computational and bioinformatic strategies to these and other issues is beginning to be explored.

Papers & Publications:

Nishio J, Gaglia, J, Turvey, S, Benoist C, and Mathis, D. Islet recovery and reversal of murine type-1 diabetes, in the absence of infused spleen cell contribution. Science (2006), 311,1775-8.

Binstadt B, Pate P, Alencar H, Nigrovic P, Lee DM, Mahmood U, Weissleder R, Mathis D, and Benoist C. Particularities of the vasculature can promote the organ specificity of autoimmune attack. Nature Immunol. (2006), 7,284-92.

Hyatt G, Melamed R, Park R, Seguritan R, Laplace C, Poirot L, Zucchelli S, Obst R, Matos M, Venanzi E, Goldrath A, Nguyen L, Luckey J, Yamagata T, Herman A, Jacobs J, Mathis D, and Benoist C. Gene expression microarrays: glimpses at the immunological genome. Nat. Immunol. (2006), 7, 686-91.

S. Zucchelli, P. Holler, T. Yamagata, M. Roy, C. Benoist, D. Mathis: Defective central tolerance induction in NOD mice: genomics and genetics. Immunity (2005), 22, 385-96.

T. Yamagata, D. Mathis, C. Benoist: Self-reactivity in thymic double-positive cells commits cells to a CD8 alpha alpha lineage with characteristics of innate immune cells. Nat Immunol (2004), 5, 597-605.